I have got a shocking number for you personally: Security experts estimate that up to ten million computer systems are contaminated with viruses built to steal your individual information.

If that does not make your hair get up, then pay attention to this: Lifelock Security discovered that at least one percent from the 67 million people that utilized a free Antivirus Scanner to check their computers, were contaminated with malicious Trojan programs.

That’s an alarming 670,000 computers.

They estimate that 1 percent of people that use their computers at home, actually downloaded malware without knowledge of it. Therefore it is safe to estimate then, that more than ten million computers worldwide may potentially have been infected with software that is able to stealing private contents and as well personal identities.

The hair-raising numbers just continue to grow. According to Lifelock Security, their detection rate rose to in excess of 800 percent between of 2008 along with the end of last year. Victims are often infected after being duped into downloading programs through fake websites or pop-ups.

Malicious programs like key logger spyware will go undetected for a significant period of time, whether or not the latest antivirus updates are installed. And once these destructive programs are downloaded onto your personal computer, every keystroke made including credit card numbers entered, Social Security numbers typed, banking information and passwords input’s are then inside the hands of the bad guys.

Thieves are getting to be technologically savvy. In fact, Lifelock reported that a third of all PCs that have an fully-functional and recently-updated anti-virus programs installed are infected.

Here are some of the highlights from Lifelock’s Study about the evolution of online identity theft and fraud:

Over three million from the audited users within the U.S.A. and over 10 million users worldwide have been infected with active identity theft-based malware in the last year.

1.27 percent of most PCs scanned in 2012 have been infected with an active malware (resident in memory) during the scan.

The Federal Trade Commission just released their latest figures inside their Consumer Sentinel Network Complaint Summary for 2012.
The total quantity of complaints made to the FTC during 2012 was the greatest ever tallying a lot more than 1.2 million registered complaints.
A total of 643,195 were fraud related complaints.

All 50 states saw an increase in identity fraud complaints and also the top five states remained exactly the same Arizona, California, Florida Texas and Nevada. However, Florida jumped from the previous ranking of 5th – to being the 3rd highest state for id theft complaints.

There was a 31% increase in identity fraud complaints from 2011 alone in south Florida.
Credit card fraud (20%) was the most typical form of reported id theft followed by government documents/benefits fraud (15%), employment fraud (15%) and phone or utilities fraud (13%). Other significant categories of id theft reported by victims were bank fraud (11%) and loan fraud (4%).

How likely is it that you will turned into a victim of a id fraud?26 times much more likely than like a victim of a violent crime21 times more probable than getting your home burglarized

Five Quick suggestions to help protect your personal computer and your identity;

1. If you are using a shared computer, always delete any private information and passwords you might have entered.

2. Never visit pop-ups or embedded links found in email froma mysterious source, even when it says, ‘You have received a postcard from your friend!’ These are usually fronts for ‘phishing’ scams. DON’T CLICK.

3. Use care when choosing passwords. Don’t use passwords containing public information which a trained identity thief can simply crack. Hint: your date of birth, the naming of your pet, as well as your mother’s maiden name are certainly not as secret as you think.

4. When shopping online; try to find signs that a website is safe, like a closed padlock around the browser’s status bar. When you’re requested payment information, the beginning of the site’s URL address should consist of “http” to “https,” indicating that this purchase is encrypted. Type the site’s name right into a search engine and when you find unfavorable reviews posted, you may look for your product elsewhere.

5. Beware of “You’ve received a greeting card” scams. If an email claims you received a gift card, don’t open it without first checking and confirming that this is not a a fake email to steel your data!

An id theft occurs every 3 seconds.

If you lead a busy lifestyle and do not want to waste time, especially your spare time, placing fraud alerts, ordering credit history, freezing and thawing your credit, opting away from junk mailing lists, and should not fathom spending years trying to restore your identity if stolen, then consider doing what I did: Get in touch with LifeLock and turn the responsibility of protecting your life over to them!
Remember, the easiest method to avoid such identity fraud is to get ready for one! When it comes to id theft, it’s everything you don’t know which will hurt you!